[frittata]

Wow, what a nightmare.

Airbnb feels like WeWork – they both desperately want to be "tech companies" but at the end of the day neither one of them really is. They should have more important things to focus on before tech. Instead of making sure their app has the nicest UI, they should first make sure all of their rentals have proper fire exits.

[menzoic]

WeWork either owned or rented all of it's properties. Airbnb is a tech platform that doesn't own any properties so by definition it's a tech company. I hear the same argument about Uber not being a tech company but they are too. Airbnb and Uber build apps and benefit from being a tech company because they can scale globally without investing in properties or taxis

[effingwewt]

They are middlemen, not a tech company.

Using tech for your business doesn't make it a tech business.

The same business has been run for years before the internet with cork-boards.

[kube-system]

Big hotel brands often don’t own the hotel property that their names are on too.

The difference between “host” and “franchisee” seems to mostly be accountability and capital, not ownership by the brand on the booking site.

Amusingly enough, I once stayed in an Airbnb at a Wyndham.

[jjav]

> by definition it's a tech company

Using technology to enable the business doesn't make the company a tech company. By that definition every company on earth is a tech company.